One in a million photo

This photo was emailed to me from my Kids' former exchange teacher. They are from Australia, but I'm not sure where the photo was taken. It's a pretty neat shot. I hope it's not a fake):

Another Crazy Work Week

My week started off with not being able to go into my office until 10:30 am on Monday. The building had been broken into sometime after 6 pm on Sunday night. They took a crow bar and hammer and broke the lock of my office door. They didn't find anything of value to take from my office,so they broke into a couple more offices in the building and stole a some very valuable stuff. They also broke the vending machines and stole all the chocolate bars and cash. I had to get my door repaired and we re-keyed the entire building. Which meant that I got the job of dishing out the keys to the staff. So yesterday was pretty much a write off for getting anything done. I had some errands to run after work and ended not getting home until after 5:30 pm. There was a road block on my way home, but they just waved me through. I wonder what that was all about. So far today has been pretty good at work, other than being short staffed. I wonder what the rest of the week will bring? I am craving a chocolate bar...but the vending machine is empty. Hmmm. I guess that's good for my health and pocket book.

Winter Woes

Yesterday it started to snow quite heavily late in the afternoon. Not thinking much of it and because I have good winter tires, I headed home after work. When I started up my road, which is 1km hill up to my house, I wasn't even a bit concerned that my car wouldn't make it up the hill. That was until I got to the first corner and there was a car straddled sideways in the ditch. By this time I see several cars, but decide to continue going up. Then all of a sudden my tires are spinning and I am sliding backwards and fast back down the hill. Finally I was able to stop, just missing the ditch. Someone had spun out at the same place earlier and had put sand down to get their vehicle back on the road. That was what saved me from ditching and damaging my car. There was no way I was going to even try to get my car moved, so I put on the 4 way flashers and called Sean at work to let him know about the car. He left work a bit early to see what he could do. In the mean time, I decide I should try to walk up the hill. Within a few steps I slipped on the ice and fell down hit my head and slid down the hill until my car stopped me. I think I laid on the ground for a few min. in great pain before I was able to get up. I opened the passenger side door and sat down and waited for my hubby( knight in shining armour) to rescue me. After I waited in the car for about 5 min. one of the men in our neighbourhood came and talked to me about my situation. He was trying to see if he could pull me out and up the hill to our driveway. But my car is all plastic in the front and he couldn't hook on to it. Then Sean showed up and they chatted about the best strategy. Finally they were able to get the car out and Sean parked it at the bottom of the hill. By this time there were several more cars in the ditch. Yikes! We went home in Sean's truck and had dinner. My neck was in so much pain, I had to take some ibuprofen. The roads were not sanded until after 10pm, so my car had to stay at the bottom of the hill. At least I should be able to get home tonight!

Bullying can happen no matter what age you are

I came across some info on cyber bullying. It is happening way too much and not only is it effecting school children, but adults in the workplace etc. are victims as well.


Are you a victim of adult bullying?
Posted: Oct 14th 2007 8:34PM by Lauren Greschner


Pretty much everyone was bullied at some point in their childhood. Whether it was by the dominant kid in a social group who never let anyone else decide what games to play, or the traditional big kid on the playground who terrorized every other child, chances are you've had to deal with some form of bullying when you were little.

Many of us think that all gets left behind when we grow up into confident adults, but unfortunately that's not always the case. Have you ever been to one of your kids' sports matches and seen another parent blow up at a referee? Or perhaps you're a part of the PTA and one of the other parents consistently refuses to listen to your suggestions or ignores you altogether? Maybe you dread going to work every day because a gossipy co-worker tries to belittle you with the information he or she spreads to your fellow workers?

According to this, all of the above constitute adult bullying. Even as a grown-up there are people who will try to boost their own confidence by intimidating others and trying to cut them down. If you think you may be a victim of adult bullying, take a look at the piece for suggestions on how to deal with it. If you know someone at work or in your social circle who is being picked on, stand up for them. Much like when with kids, a bully will often back down if they know that no one else is willing to stand for it.

What is bullying?
Bullying is a big concern for many parents and, if your child is distressed by any sort of bullying, then it should be taken seriously. Bullying is defined as persistent unwelcome behaviour and can include anything from teasing, deliberately ostracising someone to assaults and abuse. For more information on how to spot if your child is a victim of bullying go to the Scottish Anti-Bullying Network www.antibullying.net
Bullies will use many ways to get at their victims and the Internet gives them yet another method. This form of bullying is sometimes called cyber bullying and describes the misuse of email systems or the Internet for harassing people, such as by sending unpleasant or aggressive messages. Although this is a recent phenomenon and may not yet be taken seriously by everyone, bullying of all kinds is wrong and should be challenged. The good news is that there are some direct practical steps that you can take to help your child if they are a victim.

Bullying by email
Experts on bullying believe that many bullies tend to lack good communication skills and therefore the impersonal nature of email makes an ideal tool for them to victimise others. Unfortunately it is not immediately possible to check where an email has come from – you have to trust that the named writer is genuine. But it is not always wise to make this assumption. The best advice is
if a name is not familiar, it may be safer not to open the email
if the sender is a known bully or if they have sent unpleasant or annoying messages before, then ignore it and delete it straight away
if the bullying happens through a personal email account, report it to the sender’s email account provider – you can find this address after the @ sign
if it is not obvious who the sender is and there is continual bullying using email, then there are tools to trace senders. To find out more about this email tracking, go to one of the search engines, (e.g. Google, Yahoo, etc) and type in “email tracking software” - this software can then be downloaded. Once you know the identity of the bully, get in touch with your Internet Service Provider (ISP) who can then block the sender from your email.
if the email bullying is occurring in school, then this should be dealt with through the school’s anti-bullying policy.

Bullying on the Internet
You may be aware of recent episodes where people have been victimised via websites – one incident involved pupils setting up an offensive website about their teachers. Of course, the victim may not always be aware that these sites exist. However, if your child realises that they have been bullied in this way, then the first course of action is to contact your ISP. They can find out who runs the site and can request that it is removed. If the person responsible is at school with your child, then let the headteacher know. Any false accusations or anything on the website which you feel is breaking the law should be reported to the police.

Kneel mail

This morning I was watching 100 Huntley Street. I don't usually watch it, but honestly there was nothing else on that was worth watching. The preacher was yelling his sermon out, which kinda makes me laugh because the audience isn't deaf. Why do some preachers do that? But, because he was yelling it out I could hear what he was talking about while I was eating my breakfast in the kitchen. Here's what got me. He said we all need to turn off those ipods, stop wasting our time on Facebook and emails and get on our knees and get into kneel mail. Yikes, because I have an ipod, I belong to Facebook and who doesn't have email these days? It did get me thinking though. I spend a lot of time doing those things and not a lot of time praying and reading the bible. Plus we quit going to church over 5 months ago. Yikes again. But if you look into my life, I am living out God's word by my character and personality as well as trying to show others a godly life.(I am not perfect, but I 'm human) We don't go to church right now, but one day we are looking forward to being involved with a church that that makes a difference. Not just a church of programs, but a church that has a core group of people and a heart to bring change to this lost world we live in. So, perhaps I need to send God more kneel mails to find out what he is calling us to do this season.
P.S.
Did I tell you that the power was off this morning shortly after breakfast for 6.5 hours. Coincidence? I had 7 hours of no TV, Music, Facebook, Internet or emails...hmmm.....interesting eh?

A friendship rose to raise our spirits

One of the ladies I work with thought that yesterday was such a terrible day for most of us in the office. So, this morning she brought us each a yellow friendship rose. She is so thoughtful and sweet.

On a good note the President of our division called me into her office and assured me that things will be fine in the office. Which means I get to keep my full time job. She even thanked me for doing such a good job over the last few years. It made me feel a heck of a lot better. This just proves the power of my prayers yesterday.

When words hurt

Have you ever said anything to someone that you really never meant to say and wanted to take it back? The thing is about words is they leave a mark on you even if you say you take it back or apologize. I said some not so nice words to my daughter and I felt terrible about it all day. That was about a month ago when I was over stressed at work. Today I had some harsh words said to me and no reason for it other than the person saying it wants to make our lives miserable. When she left my office, I thought how rude and yet what can I do about it? So, when words hurt I just pray more and trust that God will take care of it.

First Snowfall of the season

3 Months til Disney...the count is on!

It is officially now 3 months until we take our trip to Disneyland. The hotel and flight have been booked and paid for, so now we just wait. I am really looking forward to this trip. I"ve wanted to go for well over 30 years and my kids have been bugging me to go for at least 5 years. What I am looking forward to is seeing my mom getting her dream trip with her oldest grandchildren. She has wanted to go to Disneyland as long as I have and probably even longer than that. It would have been nicer to go when my kids were a bit younger, but I'm sure it will be better now that they are older. They will be able to go on pretty much any ride and I won't have to hold their hand the entire time we are there. I am looking forward to Pirates of the Caribean. We will be there for an entire week, so that gives us time to do other things besides Disneyland. Our passes are Park Hopper Passes, so we also get to take in California Adventure. My hubby is not looking forward to the plane ride. We are taking a a Boeing 737-700 and it only takes 2 hrs and 56 min. to fly from Vancouver to Los Angeles. From there we take a transfer to Anaheim to our hotel. We are staying at The Howard Johnson Hotel which is a 5 min, walk to the front gates at Disneyland. We are going to have a blast! I am getting really excited, can you tell???